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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23832829">Fear and Miracles</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bikingpaladin/pseuds/bikingpaladin'>bikingpaladin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>RWBY Inktober-Inspired Series [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crying, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Literal Sleeping Together, Multi, Polyamory, Sleep Deprivation, Songfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:40:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,402</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23832829</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bikingpaladin/pseuds/bikingpaladin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaune, Nora, and Ren have a team talk after the events of the Volume 7 finale - a short Renorarc/Poly JNR hurt/comfort songfic.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>RWBY Inktober-Inspired Series [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Fear and Miracles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This occurs directly after the Volume 7 finale and contains all kinds of spoilers.</p>
<p>Songs Referenced:<br/>Fear (RWBY Volume 7 Soundtrack)<br/>Miracle (RWBY Volume 6 soundtrack)<br/>Miracle by Paramore<br/>(one line) Let's Just Live (RWBY Volume 4 Soundtrack)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ren. We need to sleep.” Nora said.</p>
<p>Team JNR was crashing in a derelict building somewhere in the crater of Mantle. Team RWBY and Penny were in the room next door, while Maria and Pietro were across the hall. This room’s door had long been looted of its deadbolt. The only furniture in this room was their sleeping bags that they’d carried across Anima and laid out on the concrete floor. This place was by no means a safe place to hide from the storm of grimm out there, but it was all they had.</p>
<p>Ren replied, “How can you suggest resting at a time like this? We can’t, Nora, not when Neo Politan has the lamp and not when Salem is right here in Atlas. We have to stop them. We have to.”</p>
<p>Ren tried to push out of the room. Nora reached a hand and held his right hand, to comfort him, but he decided that she was only holding him back, and Ren shoved her hands away. Nora balled her hands up and felt her words failing her as her lips silently mouthed at something, anything to say.</p>
<p>She just wanted to support Ren. How could she do that when he was pushing her away - and why couldn’t he just talk to her? She just didn’t understand why he was being so distant. He was being impossible to communicate with - and Nora was terrified that if he left the room now, she’d lose him permanently this time.</p>
<p>How could Nora give Ren what he needs?</p>
<p>As Ren moved to exit the room, Jaune got up and blocked the door. Ren stopped dead in his tracks. Nora felt her heart leap into her throat.</p>
<p>“Jaune! What are you doing?” Ren asked.</p>
<p>Jaune said, “Nora’s right, Ren. We have to sleep.”</p>
<p>“But we can’t! We have to go out there and stop Salem!” Ren protested.</p>
<p>Jaune gave Ren a look of unmasked exhaustion. “You don’t think I don’t want to be out there too? None of us have slept since before we were at the Schnee manor - that was more than twenty-four hours ago.”</p>
<p>“We have to keep going.” Ren insisted.</p>
<p>Finding words again at last, Nora said, “Ren. We’re not going to be any help if we’re falling asleep on our feet.”</p>
<p>“Even if you can’t go on, I can. Get out of my way, Jaune.” Ren said.</p>
<p>Nora and Jaune exchanged a look. Without a word, Jaune backed Ren up next to a sleeping bag and Nora swept Ren’s feet out from under him. Ren yelped as he thought his head would slam into the concrete, but Jaune caught him, cradling Ren before he could truly fall. Ren resisted the increasing urge to close his eyes any longer than a blink.</p>
<p>Jaune said, “I need you to sleep, Ren. That’s an order.”</p>
<p>“People are dying out there! I know that if I was there, I could save them. I have to help them.” Ren said.</p>
<p>Ren pushed himself out of Jaune’s arms and Jaune gave him a look of such overwhelming pity that Ren had to look away from him to avoid it. He couldn’t handle <i>emotion</i> right now.</p>
<p>Nora said, “You can’t help people if you’re too tired to fight. You can’t even sit up right now.”</p>
<p>Ren rolled onto his side and pushed against the sleeping bag. His arms shook before he’d pushed himself up more than an inch and he collapsed onto his stomach. Jaune masked a sigh of relief. Nora rubbed Ren’s back in soothing circles.</p>
<p>“I...I have to go out there.” Ren said.</p>
<p>Nora said, “Don’t make this like the Nucklevee, Ren.”</p>
<p>Ren’s eyes flashed. He looked at his teammates, making eye contact with both of them, and months of memories came to his eyes. Nora’s face came closer and as Ren closed his eyes tightly, the inside of his vision burned with the sight of Neo Politan looking up at him in Nora’s guise, begging him not to hurt her.</p>
<p>Ren realized...he was so afraid of physically hurting Nora that he had stopped realizing that he was emotionally hurting Nora by pushing her away.</p>
<p>“I can’t just not act.” Ren said, almost a whimper, almost the same voice as if he was a child again.</p>
<p>Nora said, “Yang says it’s not that you’re stopping. It’s that you’re taking a breath. And if you - if we - don’t all stop to breathe, we’ll die out there. Please, Ren. <i>Let’s just breathe.</i> Okay?”</p>
<p>Ren looked between Jaune and Nora. Their tired eyes haunted him. Was that how he looked right now? His mouth weakly gulped for air.</p>
<p>Breathe.</p>
<p>Ren quietly wrapped his arms around Nora’s waist, then pulled her against him, letting her settle into the familiar place as the small spoon. Nora took Jaune’s hands and brought him into the embrace, using those arms to hold the three of them together. Nora wiggled to find a comfortable spot under Jaune’s chin and against Ren’s chest. Jaune softly undid Ren’s braid and Ren nuzzled Nora’s head.</p>
<p><i>“We live in fear that we might fail.”</i> Nora sung.</p>
<p>Ren winced. That was his entire life, wasn’t it - running from that exact fear? And now, he was trying not to be consumed with the idea that he had made the worst failure of his entire life when he failed to stop Neo Politan.</p>
<p>
  <i>“Fear that we’ll succeed.”</i>
</p>
<p>Jaune closed his eyes to hide his guilt. He had spent so long praying that he could take Pyrrha’s place and have been the one to sacrifice himself for everyone else just so she could live. He spent so long humbling himself in idolization of her deeds that when he had said what he had said to Cinder at Haven, he had fallen so far that he didn’t realize how unhealthy it was to see himself that way until his team later pointed it out.</p>
<p>
  <i>“Fear that we may not provide the things our loved ones need.”</i>
</p>
<p>Nora’s tears fell and dripped onto both Ren and Jaune. She just wanted to be there for her team and back there, in Atlas Academy, she’d felt her heart shatter as both of them emotionally pushed her away. Even Oscar had run away, saying they had to go on without him.</p>
<p>Nora shakily finished, <i>“But our greatest fear will be realized, if we fall and lose ourselves to fear. We’ve become what we feared all our lives.”</i></p>
<p>Nora hugged the two of them hard. As she closed her eyes, she realized that both Jaune and Ren were hugging back.</p>
<p>“The General has lost himself in fear. We can’t follow his example.” Jaune said.</p>
<p>Nora nodded sadly as Ren said, “Agreed.”</p>
<p><i>“Time and time again, it seems we've reached the point where all our dreams are crumbling all around us.”</i> Jaune sang.</p>
<p>Nora reached up and patted him on the shoulder. Ren silently kissed Jaune’s cheek and Jaune’s tears overflowed, caressing Ren’s nose.</p>
<p>
  <i>“Is this path right? Or is it made of lies? We’re looking in ourselves and trusting in the light. A miracle is all we need but there isn’t one in sight.”</i>
</p>
<p>Jaune stopped and quietly sobbed into his team’s embrace. The words had stopped coming to him and all he could do was heave. He couldn’t provide any miracles for his team - he couldn’t even find them a lock on the door to protect them tonight.</p>
<p><i>“Well I’ve gone for too long - living like I’m not alive.”</i> Ren sung.</p>
<p>Nora and Jaune pet Ren’s hair, to let him know it was okay - he didn’t have to say anything. But right now, though Ren’s voice shook, he continued to sing.</p>
<p>
  <i>“So I’m gonna start over tonight - beginning with you and I.”</i>
</p>
<p>Ren kissed Nora, then Jaune.</p>
<p>
  <i>“Don’t want to run from anything uncomfortable. I just want, no, I just need this pain to end right here.”</i>
</p>
<p>Ren massaged both Nora and Jaune’s heads.</p>
<p>
  <i>“I’m not going.”</i>
</p>
<p>He hugged the two of them even closer.</p>
<p>
  <i>“Cause I’ve been waiting for a miracle. And I’m not leaving.”</i>
</p>
<p>Ren pulled the sleeping bag’s edge up to cover the three of them - to keep them warm and to give them the only safety he could offer.</p>
<p>
  <i>“I won’t let you - let you give up on a miracle.”</i>
</p>
<p>He kissed Jaune goodnight, then sweetly peppered kisses on Nora from ear to ear.</p>
<p>
  <i>“Cause it might save you.”</i>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This fic has been the biggest pain in the ass to arrange so far out of the others in this series. I had writer's block for nearly an entire month just because I wanted so badly to write for this one and then would constantly ignore it by not writing a single word. Also, I'm considered an essential worker so I'm stressed out all the time about work right now, which means fic is not a priority.</p>
<p>My current plan is to do a different pairing for each story in this series. I went searching through RWBY Inktober prompt lists to get some inspiration.<br/>Inktober Prompt List: https://twitter.com/LectraArt/status/1177946049769562112</p></blockquote></div></div>
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